99 Sheep and a Wedding Headband

The Gospel in today’s lectionary tells the tale of Jesus once again being scorned for eating with sinners. It’s here we find Jesus doing what Jesus does; he’s making his way through the towns, sitting down with the common people, talking about his Father. Luke calls these common people “sinners” here, and customarily includes “tax collectors” among the group. It’s been said these sinners were pretty much anyone who was uneducated. They didn’t follow all of the rules because they didn’t know about them. They were cast in positions below the priests and business people of the towns. The tax collectors are included with the sinners because they made their living off of other people’s income, often being accused of taking more than the going tax rate dictated. So here we have Jesus, who has been teaching in the synagogue, healing the sick, and gathering quite a following, sitting around with people who, in other people’s eyes, don’t coincide with his standing in the community. I’ve often thought it possible that the Pharisees and scribes were becoming jealous of his notoriety. Whatever the case, someone who taught on the Sabbath would surely not lower themselves to hang out and eat with the likes of street people. As the one who is always completely aware of his surroundings, Jesus hears the grumbling. And as is his style, he gives them a parable; this one with two parts.

If ever there was an example of the perfect leader, the epitome of excellence in the field of being in charge, this parable has it covered. Every time I hear about the person who loses one of his one hundred sheep and goes off looking for it, leaving the other 99 in the wilderness, I’m more drawn to what might happen to the 99 left behind than whether or not the one that is lost is found. Look at it from this perspective. How many of you have ever felt the uneasiness of leaving a large number of youth unsupervised while you attend to something else? I’ve encountered that in both coaching and scouting. I know there are teachers and scout leaders in here who can confirm what that feels like. Perhaps that is why my mind goes there. It takes a great deal of trust – and a bit more than a large amount of prayer – to have enough faith to make a decision that involves leaving large groups on their own. That’s what draws me to this parable. Not the action of the leader, but the reaction of the group. The story not only says a lot about the group, it speaks volumes about the leadership. Not only are they left alone without supervision, they are left alone in the wilderness. Yet not one runs off. If there are any class clowns in the bunch, they’ll be showing off for the others. Some of the loners might stick to the edge of the crowd. A bully might even try pushing some of the smaller members to the brink. But they all stick together. Maybe it’s something about the feeling of family. Whatever it is, there is cohesiveness within the group and a united front that keeps them together. Let’s hold on to that thought for a minute as we look at the second part of the parable.

We know that times can be hard and every dime counts. And a silver coin, no matter what day or age, is something to be concerned about. But when you start calling in the neighbors, turn on all the lights and move the furniture around to sweep the floor, it says this is not just about hard times. Something is a bit more valuable than we think. Scripture doesn’t always explain every detail, just what is necessary for the reader of the times to understand. If we lived in that age, or had a Jewish heritage, we’d know that a bride’s dowry includes a headband made of ten pieces of silver. It’s the equivalent of today’s wedding ring. So yes, it would be a big deal if a piece of the wedding band was missing. Who wouldn’t want to tear the house apart searching for it?

So after these two pieces of the parable are told, we now have a lost sheep with 99 others left in the wilderness – and a lost coin from a wedding headband that in its own right makes the rest of the coins worthless. How can we weigh in our situation with either part of this parable? Well, we can talk about how we are working together for a common goal; our experience and lessons learned from the past, combined with some very good teachers, is being placed in the limelight as we go through the process of searching for our next rector. We can talk about doing what is necessary to save someone that is lost or has gone astray. We do this every time we help someone through one of our outreach programs – the results might not be evident to us now but the effects of helping those in need can be deep and long lasting. And we can talk about how barriers we create such as working classes and education levels don’t matter and we need to eliminate these barriers from our lives. We do this every time we greet a newcomer that walks through the doors of this church and welcome them back with a personal note and thank you card.

But doing these things doesn’t mean we stop once we’ve achieved a portion of them. The biggest and best is yet to come. Will we ever be finished with the process? Probably not. There will always be some portion of something that is missing from our lives. There will always be a need to work together to make something complete. What we can’t forget is what we are instructed to do each time we succeed in this process. After the lost sheep was found, the neighbors were called to celebrate the joy! And when the bride had finally found the lost coin from her headband, everyone rejoiced! They celebrated and gathered the community together. So often we miss this. So often we keep right on going with life and not stop to acknowledge the advances we’ve made when it comes to our spiritual achievements. We throw parties for children graduating from kindergarten but barely make enough time for coffee and cake after a baptism. We don’t think twice about what we’ll spend on a sweatshirt or hat when our favorite sports team wins a championship, yet balk at the cost of necklace or ring when we are confirmed or received into the church. According to St. Luke, nothing is worth celebrating more than one person’s return to the church. We need to stop, give thanks, and rejoice in these moments. A few weeks ago I mentioned that we need to start the healing process and come together in community. I mentioned how we need to reach out to each other in good times and bad. We have begun our journey forward and we are making strides. Yesterday we had five of our parishioners attend the required training for Visiting Eucharistic Ministers and when we receive their licenses we’re going to celebrate, give thanks, and rejoice. Rejoice that these people have heard the call to tend to the ill and homebound of our parish. And as we continue to grow in other areas that have vacancies such as Sunday School Teachers, we’ll continue to reach out to more, and we will continue to give thanks and rejoice. Rejoice!